If Im not mistaken, (and I very well may be as I have not read Huston's mk run, ) the cyborgs are a call back to Moon Knights old side kick, and the storyline he had in Amazing Spider-Man called "Round Robin, Sidekicks Revenge".

saint_matthew wrote:Its kind of like discovering that as much as you liked Indiana Jones, he served no plot purpose in that first movie.

I realize this has been going around, and I think that it is really funny, but I always kind of assumed that if Indy wasn't present at the opening of the ark, figuring out how to survive, then another group of Nazis would have checked up on their friends, said "OK mental note: you cannot open this thing," and carried the Ark on to world domination.

Of course this still reduces Indy to a kind of Janitor, merely cleaning up after the Nazis off themselves. But hey, he's a janitor with a cool hat and a whip.

Or if he hadn't slowed them down, they might have brought it to Berlin and opened it in front of Hitler and the rest of the leadership.

"This is all your fault! You shouldn't have taken that cat! You don't teleport into strange metal places and steal pets!"Builds

Stormson wrote:If Im not mistaken, (and I very well may be as I have not read Huston's mk run, ) the cyborgs are a call back to Moon Knights old side kick, and the storyline he had in Amazing Spider-Man called "Round Robin, Sidekicks Revenge".

They are a call back, but the problem is more that the cyborgs have no reason to want to kill him outside of "we want to die, but can't kill ourselves." An so they came up with a plan to taunt out the person least likely to be able to kill them, to kill them. If you are really desperate to commit suicide by cape in the Marvel universe, there are easier ways to do it. Get into a fight with Wolverine, disrespect an iron age villain, join a team of teenage superheroes (that's a pretty sure fire way to ensure death in the Marvel universe).

An none of this is covered in the narrative: There's not even any preamble or any explanation of who these guys are, or even a "to read more about these characters background read issues such & such of such and such" text box. No investigation, no gathering of clues, no point where he says "aha, this must be the work of my old sidekick." He just immediately realises who they are & choses not to tell the reader.... Its expected that you know exactly who these characters from a d list comic from the 80's are. From a writing stance that's not exactly a great way to start an ongoing series, as there is no entry point for new readers.

I was really as surprised as anybody that I hadn't noticed that it didn't work as a singular story until I tried to read it as one, rather than a monthly book in which a character spends his time brutalising enemies for no apparent plot based reason. So the first book "The Bottom" can stay on the list, but I cant say I'd endorse the second trade, as it was just many pages of plotless time wasting.

“Anti-Intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.”-Isaac Asimov

“Anti-Intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.”-Isaac Asimov

Dr. Mysterion wrote:John Byrne's run on Fantastic Four. A lot of really fun stuff here. Byrne really got the dynamic of these characters.

And he put Sue in a bikini costume.... What more could one ask for.

“Anti-Intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge’.”-Isaac Asimov

Don't know if these would be on people's "best lists" but I remember liking them.

Ultimate Spider-Man, at least up until the first Goblin takedown. Spider-Girl - many good issues/archs.Runaways - the entire first major plot arch was cool. Exiles - already mentioned, the early story archs were very good. Kind of went off the rails for me later though. Earth X/Universe X - not all of it (was not as big a fan of Paradise X), but certain sections were great. I remember being actually moved back in the day by Captain America's death sequence.